Resilient heel



W. E. SANDERS.

RESlLIENT HEEL.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 6.19m. RENEWED SEPT. a. 1920.

1,383,763. Patented July 5 19211 20 a; 24 I 2 v I $3 1 171 anew-e1 3 WALTER E, SANDERS, or 'rEEii'ron, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T EssEX RUBBER COMPANY, me, or TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY,

RESILIENT HEEL.

Application filed June 6, 1917, Serial No. 173,070.

and with regard to certain more specific features. to a heel in which part or all of the material is distorted during the time that the heel is in service.

Among the objects of the invention may be noted the provision of a resilient heel so constructed and proportioned that the edges thereof fit closely against the shoe; a heel in which the points of support or attachment are located on the line of 1ll:l \'imum stress; and a heel which when applied to the shoe lies flat against the shoe and at the same time offers a fiat lower surface, to give maximum wear and maximum security in walking. Other objects will be 'in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction and operation, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts, which are exemplified in the structure hereinafter described, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawings. in which is shown one of various possible embodiments of this invention,

Figure 1 is a plan or top view of a pro ferred form of heel.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof.

Fig. 3 is a bottom view of the same heel.

Fig. 4 is a transverse section on the line 40 H of Fig. 3.

many years attempts have been made to produce a resilient heel that can be securely attached to a shoe without the use of cement,

which is not only expensive but requires time for setting, and unless properly set is liable to squeeze out between the heel and Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 5, 1921.

Renewed September 18,1920. Serial No. 411,269.

the shoe, thereby causing the heel to become loose or detached. For a heel to be satisfactory in service, it must of course-be securely attached to the shoe, and should preferably present a flat outer or lower surface, to give a maximum area over which the 4 weight may be distributed, thereby affording a firmer footing and obviating the clan-1 ger of slipping. From the point of view of the manufacturer or shoemaker, the heel should be so constructed that it may be securely applied in minimum time, preferably without the use of cement, and so proportioned that little or no bufling is required in order to adapt the heel to the shoe to which it is' being applied. And the heel should preferably fit flat against the shoe. As the description progresses, it will be seen that in the presentinfention the disadvantages of prior-art construction have been overcome and the above-noted present-day requirements and desiderata adequately realized.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings, there is illustrated a lift or heel 1, preferably of the usual shape, and constructed of some flexible material such as rubber, and adapted to be secured to a shoe 2, as indicated in Fig. GI \Vhen' applied to the shoe, the lower face 41 of the heel is flat, and the upper face 6 comprising the central portion 7, breast bevel YS and side and rear bevel 9, lies against the lower surface 10 of the outer lift of the leather heel 11. From Figs. 2, 4, 5 and (3, it will be seen that the side edges 14, 15, and rear edge 16 are all in the same plane. i From Fig 2 it will be seen that the breast edge is dished or concave below this plane, the lowest point of the concave edge being about half the vertical depth of the bevel 9, though this ratio of edge depth to b'evel depth may be varied considerably to meet the requirements of the stock, size of heel, shape of heel, and other variable factors. The angle of bevel is correspondingly smaller along the breast of the heel than'above the sides and rear of the heel, as indicated in Fig. 5. The anglepf bevel along the breast of the heel is a minimum at the center of the breast edge, and

increases toward the corners of the heel.

The concave breast edge insures atig-ht fit of the corners 17 against the lift 10, and r0.- duces a. better result in this regard t an would be attained if this upper breast edge styles or heels manufactured such an angle;

'material that is wasted by the the shoe" the were all in the plane of the side edges 14, 15, and rear edge 16. And it will be apparent that if the heel bullcd or finished, or otherwise reduced in size by taking oil the same amountoi material entirely around the periphery thereof, the'side edges and rear edge will still be in the same plane, because as is shown in Figs. 4 5 the side rear bevel 9 is fiat or rectilinear in crosssection, and of substantially uniform angle of bevel around the periphery of the heel; so that if it is reduced uniformly by removing an equal amount material al the way around, the upper side and rear edges oi the finished heel would still be in a plane parallelto the original plane of these edges and separated from the original plane by a distance equal to the depth of material removed multiplied by the tangent oi the angle of bevel. In other words, the entire side and rear margin or edge of the upper face of the lift ispreferably in the same plane, both before and after bufiing. V In order to minimize the waste of material in attaching the heel to the shoe, the heels are preierabl maiuifactured in a number iof'gsiues and shapes so that some one of the, will conform approximately to any desired shoe. This effects substantial economy by reducing the manufacturer or shoemaker in finishing the heel to the proper size. for the shoe to which it is to be applied. For thepurpose of further r ducing the amount as" waste material, and in &O1}e' i1lSiftHCS avoiding waste altogether, the sidesrilali), rearQO' and breast 21 of the heel are not'vertical, but are disposed at as indicated in Figs. 1, 2, 3,

4; and 5, that wl' eh j the position it occupies'a'fter attachment to .7),-the,s ides, rear and vertical position and breast "w ll "assu'inr a,

courselgt'ill'rejtain thatnosition as long heclflisni'n service; lhis means that when the heel is first made, the sides, rear and. breast. taper ijriward" in-,an"upward direction. "Cl his is'inllicated in Figs. 2, i and 5, where, as in the other figures, the extent of departure of the sldes, rear and breast from a vertical line has been somewhat exaggerated for the reason that'the actual departure from the verticalli s' so slight that it would hardly be noticeable if drawn precisely to scale.- It will be clear that this departure is'zjily suiiicient to bring the sides, rear and bi: est into vertical osition when the heel is brought into its service position indicated in Fig. 6:

As indicated in Figs. l and 5, washers 23 of copper, steel,'"or other suitable material are preferably eihbedded about midway of the vertical depth of the heel, coaxially with each of nail hol s 24, lf'hese are thin annular disks and are provided in. order to this line junction at scverz the heel is distorted into assures observed from Fig. 3 that the i= er nail holes 24; are located in the line 28 oi I motion of the central portion '5 of the upper face 6. L

This line of junction is the line whei tension at us in the upper 6 are i est and llLiIQl ViSE where the compression strains in the lower face 4; are greatest, when the heel is applied to the plane lower surfi' oi the outer leather heel-lift oi the s as indicat d in Fig. 6.

By having the outer nails pass thro" 1 points thereby "fastening the upper face of the to the shoe securely at several points in this line", the entire upper face of the heel is caused to lie liat against the shoe, and thereby the advantages of a. flat upper surface in service are attained without requiring any particular skill on the part of the ope ator in driving the nails to apply the heel to the shoe, nor excessive pressure exerted by the nails against the rubber. ln the. embodiment of the invention that is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, the rear outer nail hole is approximately in the central longitudinal axis oi the heel and thus inter sects the line 28 of junction at its rearmost point, while two other ail holes are located approximately on this line of junction at the two points oi intersection oi the side and rear bevel 9 with the breast bevel 8.. But it is to be understood that thisposition of the nail holesis merely illustrative and that the number and location thereof may be varied to any extent consistent with the present disclosure, without departing; from the spirit of this invention. The central nail hole is provided principally td allord a means for-holding the heel in position on the shoe while the upper nails are being driven; though of course the nail in this central hole assists to some extent in securing the heel to the shoe.

As has been stated above, the central portion 7 of the upper face 6, and the bevels 8 and 9 thereof are each flat in crosssection. The lower face is preferably a somewhat irregular curved surface including a protnberant portion opposite said central portion 7 ofthe upper face 6 and so prop-ortioned that when the upper face is flattened in applying the heel to a shoe, the lower face likewise becomes flattened. The curvature of the lower face thus depends upon the material used, since for a given angle and depth of bevel in the upper face the lower face will need tube curved to a greater orless extent depending" upon the compressibility and other qualities of the stock of which the heel is made. For example a. stock that is comparatively open anu' porous will stand considerable compression, while a lot stifie'r stock compressesless during the ap plication of the heel to the shoe and would tend to hump outwardly at the lower surface d unless the lower surface were made flatter than when the softer stock is used. Any humping of this sort, or any other departure from a fiat lower surface in service would be undesirable because the area of the heel in contact with the pavement or the like would be thereby decreased, and as a result the heel would not afford as firm and secure a footing. And since a stiffer stock is often preferred for the smaller sizes of heels on account of the greater pressure per square inch with small heels. the stiffness of the stock used commercially does vary somewhat with the size of the heel, so that in practice the curvature of the lower face 4 of the heel will not be the same for all sizes and qualities of heel.

By having the line of junction 28 conform to the contour of the outer heel lift of the shoe to which the resilient heel 1 is applied, a substantially uniform depth of bevel 8 and 9 is assured all the way around the heel,and this assures an even and uniform pressure of all points of the upper breast edge, side edges and rear edge against the shoe when the heel is applied, thereby giving the desired uniformity of grip on the edgehill the way around the heel and preventing the edge from becoming separated from the shoe at any point.

In view of the above, itis believed that the various features of this invention will be clear without elaboration, and it will be seen that with the heel herein disclosed the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention and as variouschanges might be made inthe embodiment above set'forth, it is to be understood that all matter hereinset forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A resilient heel comprising a heel-section or body having a convex lower surface, the upper surface being provided with an upwardly and outwardly extending beveled marginal portion rectilinear in cross-section, and a central plane portion, the upper breast become substantially plane.

2. A rubber heel attachment for shoe heels, comprising an elastic heel-section hav' ing a convex outer or lower urface, and an upper surface comprising a central portion and a beveled portion extending outwardly and upwardly therefrom, entirely around the heel, the outer sides and rear edge of the bevel being disposed substantially in a plane, and the upper breast edge being dished below said plane,whereby when-the heel-section is applied to the heel, the bevel and central portions may bellattened against the heel, and said outer edge may fit securely against the heel, the curvature of the lower surface being such that said surface may A resilient heel of a single element of elastic material and comprising a conve" lower surface, a plane upper surface havin an upwardly and outwardly extending bevel substantially rectilinear in cross-section, the outer edge of the side and rear bevels being all substantially in a single vplane parallel to the plane of the central portion, the side and rear bevels being of uniform depth and angle, whereby, after a uniform amount of material is removed from the periphery of the-heel, the outer side and rear edges of the bevel are still substantially in a single plane parallel to the central portion and the upper breast edge being dished below said plane to insurea tight fit of the upper corners of the heel against the shoe; and means whereby the heel may be attached to a shoe, the beveled portion then fiatteningout and bearing tightly again-st the heel at all points, and the lower surface having such curvature that.

said surface becomes substantiallya plane parallel to said central portion. g V

4. A one piece resilient' heel having an up.- per surface provided with a plane depressed portion, the upper surfacefiattening against a flat heel surface and the lower surface being protuberant opposite v said plane de-' pressed portion and flattening when the heel is applied to the heel surface of a shoe.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my I name to this specification this secondday of June, 1917.

WALTER E. SANDERS. 

